Cambridge HOTELS Chronicle

Cambridge HOTELS Chronicle

Lion Hotel
1933

68.50

The Lion Hotel

Petty Cury

Cambridge HOTELS Chronicle by Mike Petty
c.27.45 : hotels

1891 01

University Arms hotel opens [8.4]

1897 10 20

Bankruptcy landlord Bath hotel, 1897 10 20 p2 CDN

1899 12 08

New Hotel, “Fleur-de-Lis”, Humberstone road, Chesterton. This first-class hotel is now open and
replete with every comfort. Billiards room in course of erection. Gentlemen visiting the hotel will find
the Smoke Room fitted with every comfort - advert. 1899 12 08

1900

1901 08 21

The Star Brewery renewed its application for a proposed new hotel on the Hills Road, adjacent to
Cambridge Cattle Market. There were farmers, dealers in cattle coming from Norwich and Essex who
regularly attended the market, coming by train. It was desirable that they should sleep on the spot and
take care of the cattle. Mr Grain said there was opposition from Homerton college, a ladies college.
What on earth they opposed for he did not know. None of those young ladies, he was sure, would go
near a public house CDN 1901 08 21

1903 01 16

Samuel Sleigh, formerly occupier of the Blue Boar Hotel, Trinity Street, Cambridge, sued an architect
for damages. In 1899 he took the lease of the Blue Boar which was very much out of repair, both
structurally and otherwise. Trinity College, the owners, recommended Coulson and Lofts to carry out
alterations and consented to expend £3,000, but no more. When the costs went over budget he had
been sued for the extra but claimed the architect had been negligent. His case was dismissed 03 01 16

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1903 12 05

The Central Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern, Market Hill, Cambridge was for sale by auction. It
has been an important and famous inn for centuries; originally known as the ‘Three Tuns’ it was
visited by Pepys in 1660. The large ballroom with the minstrels’ gallery still exists with valuable
panelling and carved chimney pieces. It occupies an excellent position in a busy thoroughfare and is
freehold. 03 12 05

1904 01 04

Considerable damage was done by a fire that started in the attic at the Rose Hotel, Rose Crescent,
Cambridge. News was received at the Fire Station by means of the fire alarm post on Market Hill and
they were soon on the scene with the horsed fire escape and tender. Much damage was done in a
comparatively small area but every room in the hotel suffered from the effects of water, which
saturated the ceilings. Fortunately none of the bedrooms were occupied at the time 04 01 04

1905 07 18

The landlord of the Central Hotel, Cambridge, told how a man rang the bell in the commercial room
and as if he could have a ‘number”. This was the customary way in which commercial travellers
asked for a room. Later the man said he could not pay his bill. He did not believe he was a
commercial traveller and called the police. The man carried a parcel, neatly done up similar to those
carried by travellers but when opened it contained two racing calendars, a tin of boot polish and some
newspapers. 05 07 18d & e

1906 06 28

Mrs Moyes of the Lion Hotel claimed payment from an undergraduate for the hire of horses. He had
entered Trinity College and associated with men of means and even of wealth. He stated his
allowance was £300 a year (this was denied by his father who said it was £15 per term plus tailor’s
bills - about £150). The bill was for the hire of three horses on the same day - he had tossed up with
two friends and lost. But this was not a ‘necessary’ and, being under 21 years of age, he was not liable
to pay it. 06 06 28

1907 09 07

The University has extended the area within which lodging-house licences will be granted as the
number of Freshmen expected to take up residence is so large. That might seem good news for
lodging-house keepers and traders generally but the real reason is the steady growth of the suburban
areas. A comparison between lodging houses in some of our closely-packed central streets and those
in the roomy, healthy suburbs is in favour of the latter. 07 09 07c

1908 03 20

Robbery from lodging house, New Street - 08 03 20
1908 05 22

A case of great importance for lodging house keepers and traders came to court when Messrs
Murdoch, Murdoch and Co, of Regent Street, claimed the return of an organ which had been hired by
a Downing undergraduate. He had rented a room in a University lodging house but left without paying
for his board and lodgings. So the landlord had kept it together with pictures and other goods, until he
got his money. CWN 08 05 22 p5

1910

1910 12 23

skeleton found in foundations of Hoop Hotel during demolition ;had been acquired by Charles Dixon
who wanted to do away with the licence ‘which blasting & blighting lives of young men that went to
it’ A gruesome relic has been discovered during renovations at the Hoop Hotel. It is a human skeleton
grimly suggestive of a crime committed in days gone bye, a victim’s remains ingeniously hidden by a
murderer. For hundreds of years generations of people have passed along Bridge Street recking

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nothing of the horrible trophy which lay some ten feet beneath the pavement. A workman discovered
the bones of a woman placed just below the wall and floor of the wine cellar and above the
foundations. 10 12 23 [3.29,4.7]

1912 03 08

University lodging-house keepers have been venting their grievances. One woman has three sets of
rooms; if she lets them all the year she gets £84. For rent, rates, taxes and wages of servant she pays
£53; that leaves her £31 for whitewashing, papering, staircloth, carpet etc and for food and clothes for
herself. But this term all the rooms are empty. However in Chesterton there are many householders
who let rooms to undergraduates; when they come part of Cambridge will the rateable values of their
houses be increased? Lodging housekeepers should form themselves into a trades union. 12 03 08f

1913 02 28

Respectable women found it difficult to get lodgings in Cambridge at a low price. There were three
common lodging houses but they were mixed, taking both men and women. They were all in the
Barnwell district and all on licensed premises. There were also furnished rooms often let for the night,
but they were not under inspection and presented a serious problem from the moral point of view.
Nearly a third of the women and girls were engaged in some sort of industrial occupation and made
their own living to that extent, moving about the country and needed lodgings 13 02 28 p5 CIP

1914 06 26

There is no lodging house accommodation for women only in Cambridge. Two licensed houses cater
for only the painted or vagrant classes. There is a need for some place to which respectable women
and girls in need of a night’s lodgings could go. Formerly they were taken at the White Ribbon Coffee
Tavern on East Road but this has stopped. Now the council have purchased a house for the puipose
and plans for conversion are underway 14 06 26 p4 CIP

1914 09 04

The presence of the military has greatly improved the trade prospects of Cambridge and there is no
immediate fear of unemployment. The end of the Long Vacation is always a slack time but at the
moment the town is busier than usual. The problems of lodging house keepers may be overcome by
the billeting of officers and the presence of relatives of the men in the hospitals. But they may no get
the rent usually paid by undergraduates 14 09 04 p

1920

1922 02 01

Death of Mrs Moyes, proprietor of Lion Hotel; she made each guest personally welcome & under her
management Lion grew famous, particularly as commercial hotel & headquarters of sports & athletics
teams; had started at the Bath where her menus for public dinners were talk of county & smoking
concerts famous 22 02 Old [3.26]

1923

Garden House converted from private house into hotel [8.5]

1926 03 11

The Bankruptcy court was told a woman had taken the Glengarry Hotel, Regent Street, Cambridge, in
January 1921. It was entirely a licensed University lodging house for the students of Downing college
only and continued so until 1924. It had not been successful owing to the college being unable to fill
all the rooms. Subsequently she converted it into a private commercial hotel and made a profit of
about £2 a week. The major part of the deficiency arose while it was a lodging house 26 03 13

1929 10 19

With the passing of Mrs Eliza Jane Mason of the Livingstone Hotel, Petty Cury, Cambridge has lost a
prominent member of the restaurant business. She commenced business with a university lodging

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house on Market Hill which became known as ‘Masons’ and was converted into a restaurant. It was
largely used by cadets and catered for the officers stationed here during the Great War. Almost the
first Belgian wounded soldiers were billeted there and she acted as a sort of nursing mother to them.
Her next move was to Sadd’s before she bought the Livingstone Hotel which was then only a coffee
house. It is now one of the best commercial hotels in Cambridge. She also built the Rendezvous,
Magrath Avenue as a skating rink in 1909. CDN 19.10.1929

1930

1930 07 05

The policy of building more rooms in college and drawing in as many men from the lodging houses is
creating a serious outlook for the lodging-house keepers. Many have been told their rooms will not be
required next term. If the University cannot continue to utilise services which came into existence to
serve their needs some then other employment will be needed. If the University ceases to provide
adequate support Cambridge will have no alternative but to seek other means of livelihood. We will
be loath to see the town industrialised but people must live. 30 07 05b

1930 07 17

A stockbroker’s wife told the court that she had stayed at the University Arms; in the morning she
threw her pink satin pyjamas on the floor and left her door open when she went out. That night when
she returned to her room after a ball she found the bed had been turned down but the pyjamas were
gone. They had cost £7 17s 6d the year before and had scarcely been worn. Other guests had also lost
their pyjamas and nightgowns. But the judge said she was negligent in not closing her bedroom door.
30 07 17 d-f

1931 12 16

Crown Hotel, Hills Road renovated [2.8]

1933 02 03

Councillors heard that a common lodging house on Newmarket Road accommodated 16 or 17 lodgers
without any sort of bathroom. But none of the users had asked for one. There were three girls sleeping
in a small room separated only by a narrow wall from a room in which 15 men slept. This was not
right: the language in a common lodging house was not always what it should be. It was time the
council consider setting up a municipal lodging house for women as well as men. 33 02 03a

1933 07 26

The reputation which Cambridge enjoys as the home of many women prominent in public life has
been enhanced by the appointment of a new secretary of the University Lodging Houses Syndicate.
Miss Mary Kennett is the daughter of the late Professor of Hebrew. She trained at Guy’s Hospital and
her knowledge of hygiene will be valuable when she inspects the houses licensed to accommodate
undergraduates. 33 07 26

1934 03 06

The proprietor of the Garden House Hotel proposed to make alterations and additions and wanted to
acquire a portion of Coe Fen lying in front of Coe Fen Terrace, an annexe to the hotel, to add to the
gardens. There was a public footpath across it which would have to be diverted. He was the owner of
the piece of land opposite the Ladies Bathing Place which would be added to the common in
exchange for the land he wanted. Councillors agreed to the scheme. 34 03 06

1934 08 16

Ye Olde Castle Hotel in St Andrew’s Street was devastated by fire. Every fireman and policeman was
called from other duties as smoke billowed from the gabled windows leaving people gasping at its
pungency. Staff and volunteers busied themselves removing furniture. The Hotel ranked as one of the
oldest inns in Cambridge, dating back to the 13 th century. It was reconstructed about 1620 and the last

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extensive additions were in 1891. It is doubted whether it will be possible to restore the damaged parts
of this historic building. 34 08 16 [1.2, 1.13] (Regal Cinema built on site) [1.3,1.11,2.14]

1935 04 10

The Livingstone Hotel had been carried on in Sidney Street for 30 years. Under street widening
proposals they would be left with the second, third and fourth floors which they could not get at at all.
It was used by travellers who could not afford more expensive hotels. 35 04 10 & a, 35 04 11

1935 12 31

Castle Hotel’s demolition to make way for cinema - photo - 35 12 31

1936 02 04

Mrs A.A. Moyes’ charming, pleasant nature was well-known to countless visitors to the Lion Hotel in
Petty Cury hotel. Her memory was outstanding: many commercial travellers recall how she could take
up a conversation practically where it had been left off, even after many months. Undergraduates had
the greatest respect: even during the liveliest of moments she was able to quell impending trouble
without outside assistance. She had the present glass roof put above the former courtyard, which was
used for traffic up to 1907. Now the family have severed their links with the hotel after over 80 years.
36 02 04c

1936 02 22

A new Blue Boar hotel, refined and distinctive yet homely has been taking shape in Trinity Street. A
new Georgian cornice and canopy has been installed with flood-lighting producing a beautiful effect.
Internally structural alterations, redecoration and refurbishing make the hotel a place of comfort and
restful beauty with every modern refinement to ensure the enjoyment of residents who have a choice
of gas, coal or electric fires in the bedrooms. The main lounge was originally a cobblestone yard into
which coaches were driven. It was covered in in 1900 36 02 21 advert - 36 02 22a

1937 04 01

Airport Hotel approved - 37 04 Ola & b
1939 05 12

Harry Pink Lion Hotel porter 28 years also had charge of the stock rooms. He went to the hotel in
1911 as "buttons,” and except for the war when he joined the 203rd Field Company of the Royal
Engineers, remained a member of the staff. 39 05 12

1939 09 18

The University Arms pleaded guilty to failing to obscure lights in the hotel and preventing them being
visible outside the building. Mr Bradford, the manager, said he had 400 windows and 40 skylights. It
had been impossible to screen all these within 36 hours of war being declared. The skylight in the
kitchen took four men three days to screen properly. Four of the six hotel porters who would have
done the work had been called up and although they’d bought dark blinds some light shone through
little cracks. They’d also put notices in each room asking visitors not to open the windows until they
had put the lights out. 39 09 18 & a

1940

1943

Trust House Forte acquire Blue Boar Hotel [9.15]

1944 04 03

YWCA Hostel in Lensfield Road opened - two roomy houses standing side by side; the old hostel in
Rose Crescent outgrown; many hundreds had stayed in earlier years of the war. Can now
accommodate65 service women; 1,400, including Land Army have stayed. 44 04 03

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1949 12 21

A link with nineteenth-century Cambridge was broken last week when 79 year-old William (“Little
John”) Parish died suddenly. “Little John” - so called because he was barely five-foot tall - was a
waiter at the Lion Hotel for 50 years. He was head waiter to two exclusive University dining clubs,
the True Blue Club and the Beef Steak Club, which were both limited to a membership of five. Both
clubs met every term at the Lion Hotel with members of the True Blue Club wearing powdered wigs,
blue knee breeches and buckled shoes and Beef Steak members black coats and tails with silver
buttons and buff waistcoats 49 12 21

1950

1952 06 29

Mr W. Levett (just “William” to everyone at Cambridge’s Lion Hotel) recalled some of the dinners he
had served there over the last 50 years. There was a special private party for Prince Albert while he
was up at Trinity and his list of Very Important Diners ranged from barons to Sultans and Prime
Ministers. “I’ve served most of them ... Balfour, Asquith, Lloyd George (he used to live here almost),
Baldwin - and Churchill”. Undergraduate members of renowned clubs like the Beef Steak, True Blue,
Caledonian and Carlton have dined there. “Twelve to 15 courses we used to carry, and they took two-
and-a-half hours to serve. And, mind you, nothing less than a magnum for the table”. He is a cheerful,
energetic little man and it would be a good idea if the hotel management entertained “William” to
dinner and let someone wait on him - just for a change.

1956 10 06

The Cambridge lodging-house landlady is part of the education of every young man who comes to
study at the University. She is part-mother, part-landlady & part-disciplinarian who must maintain a
difficult blend of deference and firmness in dealing with her young gentlemen. He is told how much
rent he must pay, that he pays extra for a piano, hot water for his bath or a scuttleful of coal. But
unless lodgings are peaceful and conformable men will not study well. 56 10 06a & b

1958 02 15

Fire seriously damaged the Garden House hotel; part of the roof and several bedrooms were affected.
Hundreds of people lined the hanks of the Granta watching while thick white smoke gushed from
under the roof. But within an hour Angela Parfitt and her ‘groom Michael Lean were celebrating their
wedding reception there. 58 02 15 58 02 17 [3.7]

1958 06 06

Six members of the Order of the Irish Christian Brothers lived together in a Victorian house in Hills
Road. There was a retired teacher in charge, a practically bed-ridden man, one who acted as a general
factotum, one who did the cooking and two members they were sending to the Technical School and
University. The house closed in the vacation. The Valuation Panel decided it was not a hostel but a
private house, which reduced their rating assessment. 58 06 06

1958 12 12

Central Hotel: Kings college announce plans for demolition, great opposition [3.9,3.14]

1960s The Cambridgeshire Collection has detailed newspaper cuttings files from this date
1960 03 24

Central Hotel, Peas Hill demolished after great controversy, (opens as hostel 1962) [3.15,3.16]

1960 04 05

‘Diggings’ are in short supply in Cambridge. Over the last 15 years the temporary accommodation
problem has gone from bad to worse, and unless one really strikes it lucky a furnished flat or a room
in a ‘middle class’ lodging house with meals provided is right out of the question. There is a natural
hostility towards children and most landladies just have not got the room for complete families. They

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prefer to let rooms to students who only want a bed for the night. Legislation has done little to ease
matters and the small investor has practically disappeared from the market. It is now only
economically worthwhile for the man who buys whole houses to convert them into flats. 60 04 05

1961 07

Lion purchased July 1961 by Jack Cotton & Chas Clore for City Centre properties; largest single
property transaction in Cambridge; by 1964 hotel closed & just bars open [446.16.3]

1962 08 16

Gonville Place Hotel sold 62 08 14

1963 01 02

Royal Cambridge acquired by Garden House Hotel [8.3]

1963 02 23

Lion hotel closes next month [8.2]

1965 01 15

Royal Hotel modernisation progress - 65 01 15a

1965 12 21

University Arms 200 bed extension opens, has seen removal of stone pillars on Regent St [8.4]

1966 11 04

Bene’t Hostel, Cambridge’s only hostel for girls closes; has been on verge of bankruptcy for much of
its 23 year history; gave shelter to women stranded in city; was used by women teachers and social
workers as well as girls sent by welfare organisations; now accommodation easier to rent - 66 11 04

1968 04 15

De Vere apply to build “biggest hotel in East Anglia” on Huntingdon Road; becomes instead one of
biggest planning wrangles when Ministry rejects scheme, backs down, calls new inquiry, delays
announcement; De Vere changes plans, gets permission, abandons scheme, 1973 [8.6,8.10]

1969 05 02

Lion Hotel demolition under way [10.12]

1969 10 10

Royal Cambridge Hotel fire - 69 10 10

1969 12 04

Airport Hotel sold to Marshall’s for hostel; built by Star Brewery about twenty years ago 69 12 04

1970

1970 01 15

Gonville Hotel planned to grow into one of city’s biggest with rooms up from 20 to 100 - 70 01 15a
1970 02 14

Garden House Riot against Greek holiday promotion - 70 02 14, 14a, 14b
1970 06 10

De Vere granted permission for hotel and office block at Pound Hill - but will be inquiry - 70 06 10
1970 08 01

Suffolk House private hotel converted from house [10.3]

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197101 12

“City hotels inadequate” headline [8.11]

1971 03 30

Garden House Hotel launches £1M expansion - 71 03 30 [8.12]

1971 04 16

De Vere Hotel plans rejected by Government - 71 04 16b

1972 04 24

Two middle-aged women who jumped from a first-floor window into the Garden House hotel’s back
gardens to escape the fire were later found by a Cambridge milkman wandering along Fen Causeway
in their nightclothes. A friend said “The women looked like refugees with smoke-blackened hands
and faces. They had walked across Coe Fen. The milkman stopped his float and asked if he could help
them”. Miss Sarah Wilhelm from Ohio said she was woken by a burning smell. She saw the room
stalling to fill up with smoke and saw the paint on the inside of the door turning brown. She jumped
from the window and the other lady followed 72 04 24. Two die [1.15,8.13]

1972 04 27

Trust House plans for hotel in Trumpington Road blocked 74 02 27
1972 07 05

“Need 500 extra hotel beds” [8.15]

1972 08 24

It has been an irritating summer for the hundreds of visitors to Cambridge who have been forced to
scour the surrounding countryside for hotel rooms. Cambridge has always had a notorious reputation
for being unable to accommodate all the summer visitors. This year the situation was made worse by
the Garden House Hotel fire in April which left the city the poorer by 75 bedrooms. Help is already
on the way. The Garden House Hotel is being rebuilt; the Gonville Hotel will open again after
alterations and work has started on a 100- bedroom hotel at Bar Hill. Whitbread have outline planning
permission to build a 60-bedroom motel extension at the Red Lion Hotel, Trumpington and De Vere
Hotels are awaiting the outcome of the inquiry into their application to build a 200-bedroom hotel on
Castle Hill 72 08 24

1972 10 28

New fire regulations introduced; Glengarry Hotel to close [8.16]

1973 02 19

Gonville Hotel reopens after £400,000 improvements [8.18]

1973 07 13

Garden House reopens after £2M rebuilding, 16 months after fire [8.20]

1973 07 26

Inquiry into Trust House Forte plans for hotel on corner Trumpington Road and Brooklands Avenue
73 07 26

1973 09 04

De Vere's have been given final planning permission to go ahead with their plans to build a £2
million-plus hotel at the Huntingdon Road - Mount Pleasant junction, Cambridge - almost five years
after the project was first proposed. But the London-based company are not saying yet when they
intend to start building on the derelict site overlooking one of the city's busiest road junctions. It was

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at the beginning of 1969 that De Vere Hotels and Restaurants Ltd submitted their original plans for
the hotel 73 09 04

1973 10 25

De Vere have finally abandoned their plans to build a 5-star 200-bedroom hotel at Cambridge's Mount
Pleasant - Huntingdon Road junction. Instead the company have suggested to planners that the site
could be used for a four-storey block of residential flats with a restaurant, showrooms, offices and a
bank included in the development. The company say it is "no longer economically viable" to go ahead
with the hotel project which has been on the stocks for four years. It is being suggested that the
originally estimated building costs of around £2 million has now risen to about £3.8 million 73 10 25

1974 05 10

The placing of the Garden House Hotel into the hands of a receiver-manager illustrates all too clearly
the fine line between success or failure in business plans. At one moment the £2 million scheme was
all go, and even at an interest rate of IOV 2 %, would have been viable for the family business. But
then, almost overnight, rocketing interest rates killed off all hopes of doing anything other than paying
a loan. Even though the hotel is making a profit on a day-to-day basis they could not contemplate it.
To pay off a bank overdraft accrued since the fire that gutted the original buildings two years ago,
they had to expand and create a higher turnover 74 05 10

1974 10 24

Great Northern hotel closed over a year ago due to fire regulations [9.4]

1974 11 08

Trust House Forte plans for hotel Trumpington Road corner Brooklands Avenue approved, (they drop
scheme 1975 & later build at Impington) [8.14, 9.1, 9.9]

1975 08 05

Plan for 100 bed hotel at Brookside rejected [9.5]

1976 11 02

The signing of a £1 million sales contract for the Garden House Hotel in Cambridge marks the end of
speculation and rumour about its future. Essentially a family business established in 1910, the hotel
hit world headlines in 1970 when for five hours it was the scene of some of the worst violence
Cambridge has ever experienced. About 500 students besieged the hotel, hurling bricks and abuse as a
protest against the Colonel’s regime in Greece and caused £2,000 damage. Two years later fire gutted
the premises killing two guests. This disaster led to financial trouble and the appointment of a
receiver-manager in May 1974 76 11 02

1977 11 30

Arundel Hotel opens: A new hotel opens in Cambridge this week - and with 33 bedrooms it becomes
the fourth largest in the city. The new Arundel House Hotel is a complex of red brick houses on
Chesterton Road overlooking the River and Jesus Green. The development follows the purchase of
number 61 Chesterton Road last year and its conversion into a 12-bedroomed hotel. Now John
Norfolk has converted two other adjacent properties he owns - from flats and bedsitters to an
integrated hotel complex. "With house prices as they are now it is virtually impossible to charge a
proper rent related to these new values", he said. "The transition of Chesterton Road into a hotel was
the obvious answer to get a proper return" 77 11 30 [8.17]

1979 10 22

Garden House announces £2M expansion plans [9.3]

1980

1980 09 08

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Regent House hotel (part including old Glengarry) opens [9.7]

1980 11 27

Plan for 150 bed hotel Chaucer Road (rejected by Dons 81 02 11) [9.8]

1981 09 12

Lion Yard Hotel plan 81 09 12

1982 05 07

Planners fear that the traditional Cambridge landlady is an endangered species, as more and more
colleges press to change their family lodging houses into student hostels or ‘outside staircases’. But
Mrs Winifred Phillips who runs a lodging house for 24 undergraduates says students think they can
cope, but they can’t. They come here to study and want to enjoy themselves in what time they have to
spare, not worry about the domestic side of life. Her grandmother ran a lodging house, as did two
aunts; and her father, husband and son have all been college porters. 82 05 07a & b

1982 10 07

There are several types of student seeking landladies. If you are prepared to cook an evening meal for
a language student - and all meals at weekend - then the Davis School would pay £38 a week. CCAT
students who just want a room pay £17 a week, without heating. The greatest shortage is in
independent provision for postgraduates. The ideal is a terraced house housing three and with shared
kitchen. They would pay about £18 rent each and meet their own heating and hot water bills. 82 10
07

1983 01 13

Garden House doubles in size [9.11]

1983 01 28

Trust House Forte deny closure of Blue Boar when their new hotel opens at Impington in July; they
had acquired it in 1943 and recently modernised and refurbished 93 01 28

1983 06 28

Centennial Hotel opens Hills Road, former Guest Houses knocked together [9.12]

1984 05 15

Trust House Forte open new hotel at Impington 84 05 15
1984 10 22

Garden House fire in linen room, 100 evacuated [9.14]

1984 12 24

Garden House Hotel changes hands 84 12 24

1985 12 11

Regent Hotel - formerly Glengarry - refurbished - 85 12 1 lc [9.18]

1986 02 25

Plans for new hotel on Lion Yard site announced, Holiday Inns wins competition for site 86 03 11
[9.19,10.1]]

1986 04 15

The historic Blue Boar Hotel in Cambridge closes forever on Saturday after 300 years. But the
management is making sure they go out with more than a whimper. Food prices will be slashed,
drinks sold at a discount and the customer who buy’s the bar’s last drink will be given a bottle of
champagne. Trinity College is to build student rooms, a lecture theatre, wine bar and four shops on

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the site. The hotel’s distinctive blue-and-white frontage with its shutters will be retained as will the
graceful canopy that had to be repaired after being damaged by lorries. The famous Westmorland
stone blue boar, which hangs in the reception room will be also incorporated into the new design 86
04 15a. To be converted by Trinity College for student accommodation [10.2]

Blue Boar hotel feature on closure - 86 04 15b & c

1986 08 01

One of Cambridge’s better-known private hotels, the Suffolk House in Milton Road, is for sale at
£250,000. The main structure was built in about 1930 by a Cambridge doctor and later owned by a
professor of botany who stocked the garden with many kinds of trees and shrub. Outbuildings include
a summer house and two-bedroomed timber chalet for the owners’ occupation. It was converted from
a private house in 1970 and is primarily used by business clients connected with Pye group of
companies and firms on the Science Park 86 08 Ola

1987 01 10

One of Cambridge’s top hotels, the Garden House, is planning a £3 million expansion. Luxury
apartments and 16 hotel rooms are proposed as well as a sophisticated leisure complex including
swimming pool, sauna, gymnasium and health-food snack bar. Penthouse suites will be built along the
River Cam front. The 117-room hotel has to compete with the Post House at Impington and the Moat
House at Bar Hill while a new hotel is planned for Downing Street 87 01 10b

1987 12 03

A major multi-million-pound expansion scheme for the Garden House Hotel has been thrown out by
planners who fear it would encroach on ‘sacrosanct’ land. Opponents had complained the proposals
would destroy the open character of Sheeps Green and Coe Fen. Others were worried about traffic
congestion. The planning officer said the original Garden House had grown into a hotel served from
narrow streets. “It would be quite clearly wrong to extend further with urban scale development into a
tongue of land between two critical open pieces of land”, he said. 87 12 03

1988 11 15

The prestigious Garden House Hotel has been taken over by Queens Moat Houses, the first national
chain to gain a foothold in the city. Its main competitor, the four-star University Arms is owned by the
Bradford Family while the Ridgeon family own the Gonville and Arundel House belongs to Major
John Norfolk. The Garden House was first opened in 1922 but has had an unsettled time with five
different owners in the last 20 years. In 1970 it was damaged during the ‘Garden House Riot’ and two
years later gutted by a fire. It reopened in 1973 and has since been extended. Now it will be
redecorated 88 11 15

1989 01 10

The University Arms Hotel has been sold to the De Vere chain which owns 30 luxury hotels across
the country. They plan to refurbish the 115-bed four-star hotel. Built as a coach house in 1830, the
University Arms was acquired by Marcus Bradford in 1891. The 160 staff will be retained. De Vere
hoped to build a hotel in Cambridge several years ago and bought a site in Mount Pleasant, but the
scheme fell through. 89 01 10

1989 01 12

The University Arms Hotel has been owned by the Bradford family for almost a century and its sale
marks the end of an era. Opened in 1834, the original hotel was a three-storey building with just 15
bedrooms. It was bought by Marcus Bradford in 1891 and rebuilt, with a further extension in 1925,
then substantially modernised in the 1960s and 70s. It was the first hotel in Cambridge to install
electric lighting, and the first heating system was installed in 1900 when there was also ‘telephonic
communication with all parts of the United Kingdom’. Today it has 115 bedrooms, a restaurant for up
to 250 people, several bars and conference rooms. 89 01 12b

1989 09 08

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Cambridge HOTELS Chronicle

Garden House Hotel’s expansion plans include a glass-walled swimming and leisure centre with pool,
squash court, saunas and solaria. There would be an extension housing 16 bedrooms, each of which
would have a balcony, together with six two-bedroom apartments with kitchens, designed for longer-
stay residents such as senior managers or academics. These will run along the east bank of the River
Cam and be screened by trees. In addition there will be bed-sitters for staff and a two-storey car park.
This would complete the hotel’s business plan. But there have been criticism from preservationists. 87
11 16a Garden House Hotel expansion approved cCEN 8.9.88

1990 10 11

Garden House Hotel taken over from Queens Moat House group by Paul Breen, plans leisure complex
90 10 11a

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